An Author’s Intolerance

Joan Acocella discusses Agatha Christie’s negative caricatures of Jews, writing that “the treatment, then, is intended as comic. It is part of Christie’s satire, from book to book, of her countrymen” (A Critic at Large, August 16th & 23rd). Christopher Hitchens, in his memoir, “Hitch-22,” has a slightly different take on Christie’s feelings. Hitchens remembers a dinner at Christie’s home this way: “The anti-Jewish flavor of the talk was not to be ignored or overlooked, or put down to heavy humor or generational prejudice. It was vividly unpleasant and it was bottom-numbingly boring.”